


Melt

by Nununununu



Category: His Dark Materials (TV)
Genre: Blow Jobs, Feelings, Friends With Benefits, Getting Together, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oral Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:49:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27464461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu
Summary: This is not the first time that Iorek has cautioned himself not to want more. It’s not even close.
Relationships: Iorek Byrnison/Lee Scoresby
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21
Collections: Flash With Benefits





	Melt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DoreyG](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/gifts).



This is not the first time that Iorek has cautioned himself not to want more. It’s not even close.

“I don’t suppose you’d happen to be feeling so inclined –?” Lee is giving him the sort of sideways look Iorek has come to recognise as standing in for some of the many things between them it seems neither of them will say.

The man’s stirring the embers leftover from the fire with the toe of his boot, Hester a sleepy shadow a few feet off to his other side, the sedge forming a mattress beneath him softened by his coat as he lies half tipped back on his elbows. The night is warm enough that Lee has his hat pushed back and his neckerchief undone, and this rare space between chin and collar is where Iorek leans in to graze his nose for a moment after rising and padding over, not quite holding himself above the man, not quite letting himself properly touch.

“Mm,” Lee makes a small noise at the contact, Adam’s apple bobbing as Iorek lets his nose skim his throat, appreciation and eagerness in the man’s voice dampened by something nowhere near as great as caution, but some other restraint, “I take it you are – ah. Amenable, then.”

“I am,” Iorek cannot say why Lee’s hands remain so reserved, just as he has no answer for why he hesitates to bury his nose properly against the crook of his friend’s shoulder or under his jaw, and to nuzzle there like he has so often felt the yearning to do.

It’s like there are invisible lines between them, unwritten rules they have never discussed. Iorek mouths very briefly at Lee’s throat, the most he will allow himself when he longs to indulge in lingering over the taste and to properly explore. Lee’s hands will fly up to hover respectfully over the tips of sharp guard hairs, never sliding in properly to discover the softer shorter layer beneath the tougher outer one, never holding on tightly, never tugging or stroking or doing little more than offering the lightest of touches.

“I’m sure glad to hear it,” There’s a faint grin audible in Lee’s voice, even as his fingers tighten upon Iorek’s jaw just for a moment, just for long enough that Iorek has to compel himself not to sway forwards into the touch, and then, to his regret and frustration, his friend is pulling back.

It is perhaps wrong of Iorek to think it, perhaps unfair to desire of Lee more than he can give – or is willing to give or quite possibly believes that _Iorek_ is willing to give – but Iorek cannot in honesty deny the fact that he does want more.

He’s wanted more for so long.

“Will you allow me, my friend –?” This, however, is something Iorek can ask for, even if it remains couched in implication and context. He lets his muzzle drift lower down his friend’s body, nose brushing the fastenings to Lee’s shirt rather than investigating them with his teeth, not giving in to the temptation to detour to learn the reaction Lee would have if Iorek mouths at a nipple through the intervening fabric.

“ _Yes_ ,” Even so, Lee is already gasping a little when Iorek reaches his belt, fumbling with the buckle in a manner far more clumsy than usual, the panserbjørn rumbling in the effort to refrain from requesting permission to attempt this himself, “Yes, Iorek –”

Lee arches his back, pushing his hips up so he can drag his trousers down enough to provide access, and Iorek tries not to glimpse the flush on his friend’s face visible in the remaining light from the embers and identify it as anything other than lust.

If the emotions there appear more complex than simple want, then it is not for Iorek to presume to decide what they are.

Two friends helping each other, or that is what Lee had referred to this as once, back near the beginning, even as his gaze had strayed away from Iorek’s and he’d bitten down on his lower lip briefly before subtly angling his face away.

Just two friends helping each other. Although Iorek is still unfamiliar with some human customs, the practicality of the arrangement is not strange to him; it is precisely what two panserbjørne would indulge in for a short time on the ice before parting without qualm.

Yet he and Lee have been coming together like this exclusively, without discussion or acknowledgement, for _years_.

Iorek’s head wants to refer to Lee as his lover. And oh, his heart –

His heart wants to refer to him as beloved.

It is shamefully disingenuous of Iorek not to admit as much to his friend. And yet he can’t deny the fear that if Lee were to withdraw his friendship as a result, that if Iorek were to lose the easy companionship of this human and his daemon –

Then he should accept that and move on. It is entirely unlike a panserbjørn to remain so long with another, after all.

But he _wants_ –

“Lee,” Allowing himself to growl a little, Iorek drinks in the scent of Lee’s arousal as he shifts to stand more directly above his friend – it is safe to do so, it seems, now Lee’s trousers are opened and his rapidly hardening cock rising towards Iorek’s mouth. He lets the rumble linger in his throat for the delight of seeing his friend twitch and stifle a groan as a result, Hester stirring in order to bound over to press herself in close against Lee’s side, gazing intently up at Iorek when Lee will often seek the cover of his hat or his hand over his eyes.

“Don’t,” Iorek finds that he requests now, letting the word whisper directly against the underside of Lee’s cock, lapping up the precome that spills over the head of the glans after, relishing this taste of his friend that is so intimate and yet somehow seems less so than simply telling Lee that Iorek would –

Oh, have him by his side for the rest of their lifetime (but does he not already? After years together, are they not in some sense _together_ as well?). Have him truly, to have each other truly, in all the ways they might want to, in all the ways _Lee_ might want to –

Anything. Anything Lee might want.

“D-don’t?” Lee is echoing though, moaning around the word given Iorek is lipping at and licking his cock, the man shoving a hand down to support his shaft to keep it steady in place, enabling Iorek to do so more easily. Enabling him to close his lips over his teeth carefully and to draw his friend in deeper until Lee pulls his hand back, whining as Iorek wraps the sides of his tongue around the hot shaft in his mouth and starts to suck.

This is something they both very much enjoy. Lee’s hands dart away to claw at the sedge as his thighs tremble and his hips strain to leap up, Hester whimpering along with him as Iorek relishes in their unravelling control, using the knowledge he’s built up of this part of his friend’s body and the experience he’s acquired regarding this act to use his mouth to draw pleasure out of Lee until the man’s near sobbing with it, wrenching a hand up to clap it not over his eyes but his mouth.

“ _Don’t –?_ ” Lee repeats after, his voice hoarse from the shouting he’d muffled, body gone wonderfully lax between Iorek’s and hands drifting either side of Iorek’s muzzle, back to being so inexplicably restrained once again. He bites down on his lip, “Iorek, what do you – is there something I can – Will you let me return the favour?” He drags a shuddering breath in, gaze searching Iorek’s instead of evading, something almost like pleading colouring the edges of his tone before he endeavours to swallow it down, “Please.”

Iorek longs to learn the heat in his friend’s cheeks; to lick at Lee’s cheeks and chin and lips and see how the man will react. He longs to unpeel Lee fully from his remaining layers and to mouth very gently at Hester’s little head, and to tell them just how very precious they both are to him.

Lee is his friend, yes, the closest and truest he has ever known. But lover and beloved both, as well.

_If only._

“You may,” Iorek grants – he is not so strong that he can deny this man and nor does he have any wish to, the heat of desire leaping all that higher within him in anticipation of Lee using his own mouth.

Although he must say it. He must tell them.

“Lee,” It is ridiculous to keep hesitating so. Whether his affections are returned or not, it is only fair to his friend and only right that Iorek should let him know.

“Iorek?” Lee is requesting simultaneously, his tone almost desperate, hands either side of Iorek’s jaw so close to completing the touch, “Would you be so kind as to do me the favour of please telling me quickly first –”

Hester takes over for him, “We really would appreciate knowing what you meant by ‘don’t’.”

“If we did or are doing something wrong, I do most sincerely apologise,” Lee’s dark eyes hold steady on Iorek’s, his teeth chewing the inside of his cheek as if feeling that same concern, that same inexplicable hesitation Iorek has been beset by for so long. His heart thumping hard enough for Iorek to hear it if he listens carefully, Lee’s breath coming fast. Hester’s own tiny heart racing as well.

Lee’s fingers stir through white fur and he makes the tiniest of sounds. 

“No, my friends,” Iorek shakes his head a little, thrilling at the feeling of those hands pressing just a little harder against him as a result, “There is no need for you to apologise, although I offer an apology on my own part.” He takes in a deep breath of his own, “I can’t help but feel it is beyond the time that I should inform you that –” No, he isn’t phrasing it properly, “That I would like to confess –”

_I love you._

Lee’s blinking at him, his eyes growing wider even as he shoots Hester a hasty look.

“Iorek, are you saying that –” He trips over his own words and Hester’s as well when she chimes in along the same line, “Because while I most surely don’t want be leaving you waiting, we, ah, we’ve also been wanting for – for _such_ a long old time to tell you that – That is, to confess –”

_I love you. Do you love me?_

“Yes,” Iorek is saying even before Lee has fully finished, unable to stop himself, “ _Yes._ ” Relief flooding through him along with even greater desire and love and affection for his friend, even as Lee makes a joyfully strangled noise and then leans up to fling his arms around as much of Iorek as he can reach, burying both his hands and face in Iorek’s fur, Hester snuggling in against one of Iorek’s forepaws as he dares to nuzzle them both as he’s been so wanting to in return.

They are both saying it, their voices overlapping, human and daemon both, “We do – we do too, Iorek; ever so much. _Yes_.”

It is like those invisible lines between them unravel, that last bit of remaining distance vanishing as all three continue to confess everything they’ve been holding back on for so long, and Lee wriggles around determinedly until it becomes of utmost necessity that things pick back up in the manner that they had been before.

Although, wrapped up in each other as they are, with no need any longer for doubts and hesitations –

It makes all the difference in the world.


End file.
